I thought that I had lost the ability to be surprised by the lack of knowledge that people show.

I got accustomed to University students not knowing who Aristotle or Confucius are. I was not shocked when a colleague told me that his art students thought that cubism is something from Cuba and that Italian students never heard of the Risorgimento.

But what I saw two days ago gets the biscuit.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president of the USA was being interviewed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe". The dialogue speaks for itself.

"What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo," Mike Barnicle asked Johnson on MSNBC's Morning Joe ..

"What is Aleppo?" Jonson asked, appearing genuinely curious.

"You're kidding me," Barnicle responded.

"No," Johnson said, looking around the room.

"Aleppo is in Syria," Barnicle explained. "It's the epicentre of the refugee crisis."

“OK, got it. Got it,” replied Johnson, before continuing to say of Syria: “It’s a mess”, and that the US should join with Russia to diplomatically end the war.

“No one is taking this more seriously than me, I feel horrible,” Johnson said to Bloomberg Politics’ Mark Halperin, who was also a guest on Morning Joe. “I have to get smarter, and that’s just part of the process.”

Johnson later tried to wiggle out of this mess. He issued a statement that he was human and would continue to make mistakes, but would surround himself with qualified advisers when he's in the White House.

Aleppo has been in the news for years. This week we were informed that the situation is so bad that children are committing suicide.

A few weeks ago the whole world was shocked by the video footage of little Omran Daqneesh shell-shocked, covered in dust, his face red with blood. He had just been pulled out from rubble of a house destroyed by bombs.

Need I continue?

On occasions like these one feels like thanking God for our politicians.